


Don't Be Scared

by FriendLey



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Infinity War spoilers, Pepperony - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 17:02:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14501541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendLey/pseuds/FriendLey
Summary: When the heir to Stark Industries was born, someone on the board gifted Tony and Pepper a baby mobile featuring various planets, stars, and a moon. Tony thought nothing to it. After all, what's a 3D printed moon gonna do to him?





	Don't Be Scared

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of its characters and lines from the movie used in this story. What is written here is for entertainment purposes only. I do not make any profits from it.
> 
> A/N: Morgan is pretty much canon to me now. In this story, Pepper and Tony have a daughter and name her Morgan, not after the eccentric uncle, but after the kid in Tony's dreams.

When the heir to Stark Industries was born, someone on the board gifted Tony and Pepper a baby mobile featuring various planets, stars, and a moon.

Tony thought nothing to it. After all, what's a 3D printed moon gonna do to him?

But apparently it did something to his daughter because Morgan grew up to be a space junkie.

She loved stars and because Tony was a masochist, he had the galaxy painted on her bedroom walls when she turned 3.

The look of pure fascination and joy on her face when she saw it the first time was enough to make Tony temporarily forget he was supposed to be afraid of space.

It took him about a month of standing by the doorway and watching Morgan play before he gathered enough wits to walk inside.

One time, Tony picked Morgan up from school and the five year-old shoved a sheet of paper in his face.

"What's this?"

He turned the paper over and he felt a shiver run his spine.

"It's you, daddy! In space!"

She drew Iron Man flying and behind him were various planets.

Later that evening in the privacy of their bedroom, Pepper asked him, "You want me to talk to her?"

Tony shook his head. "It's not fair to her, forbidding the topic at home just because I can't deal with it."

"Well, it's not fair to  _you_  subjecting yourself to this torture. She'll understand when she's older, Tony."

"Then we'll talk to her about it when she's older."

...

Somehow word got out that Morgan Stark loved space and on her 7th birthday, received a telescope from the royal family of Wakanda.

"Daddy, I need your help."

Tony put away his work and gave his daughter his full attention. "With what, sweetie?"

"I want to use the telescope!" she exclaimed with a bounce on the balls of her feet.

Tony felt his smile slip. It took him considerable effort to bring it back on his face.

It was 3 in the afternoon, so thankfully, Tony had an excuse to delay it. When night came, it was too cloudy for stargazing, so they had to reschedule it to another night.

And finally there was no more daylight to delay them, no clouds to interfere, and Tony squared his shoulders and grit his teeth as he adjusted the telescope to look for the moon.

An hour later, Tony tucked Morgan in bed and she said, "Tell me about the moon, daddy."

Tony's hands stilled, his breathing paused. It was only Morgan tugging on his hands that brought him back.

"It's... round," he managed after a deep intake of breath.

Morgan giggled, oblivious to the racing of her father's heartbeat. "I know that, silly! But I want you to tell me a story about the moon."

A story about the moon? How about when a mad Titan crushed Tony under it? No. That wasn't kid appropriate and neither was it any good for him.

"Um... Let's see." There were a dozen myths surrounding the moon and the sun and if Tony had to choose one that was at least kid friendly…

"You saw how the moon looked like, right?"

She nodded. "It looked like it had holes."

"Yeah. Well, there's a reason for that. You see, the sun and the moon don't just rise on their own. Tilion was this young guy who guided the moon meaning he was in charge of bringing it up to the sky when night came. The one who guided the sun was Arien, a beautiful girl with flaming red hair like yours!"

Morgan grinned and Tony continued, "Now, Tilion liked Arien, and I mean  _really_ liked her and he would follow her everywhere! Secretly, of course. But, one time, he came too close to the sun and the moon burned, hence the dark spots on it."

"Oh, no!" said Morgan. "Poor Tilion. What did the girl do?"

Tony racked his brain for an ending. This Tolkien story was never really verified and he decided there was no harm to improvising. "Um, well, she felt so bad about it that she never allowed Tilion to go near her again. So the sun rising in the day and the moon rising at night is actually Tilion trying to chase Arien and Arien trying to run away."

"They can never be together?"

"'Fraid so, baby." Tony leaned over to kiss her forehead. "Now, that's enough for tonight. Night night."

"Night, daddy."

Tony turned around to find his wife watching him from the open doorway, a knowing smile on her face.

"That wasn't so bad," she said.

Tony found that she was right.

He switched off the lights and glow-in-the-dark stars kept Morgan company.

…

As Morgan grew, so did her interest in space.

So, Pepper took her to a space museum and when she returned, she barraged Tony with a ton of questions, the most important one being: "What do aliens look like?"

A whale-like roar resounded in Tony's head and he shook it away.

The Chitauri and Thanos weren't allowed to invade his mind today. Not when Morgan was watching.

"Well, they don't look very different from us. I'll let you in on a secret." He cupped his mouth and whispered, "Thor… is not from around here."

Morgan's eyes grew wide. "No way!"

…

Morgan stood in front of Tony, her arms folded, her lips a thin line.

Tony looked across the room to Pepper for help.

"Don't look at me. She's your daughter," Pepper said to him.

That was true. At 10 years old, Morgan was incredibly dramatic and Tony wasn't an idiot. He knew where she got that from.

"What's the matter, honey?"

"I found a video on YouTube."

"Oh, no," Tony groaned. Wasn't Friday supposed to wipe YouTube of all his scandalous videos? Wasn't she supposed to only allow Morgan to watch Steven Universe?

Morgan put her hands on her hips. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

Tony stuttered, "I—oh—I don't even—Want to tell me what you're giving me the angry face for?"

Morgan huffed and sat beside him. "The wormhole! The aliens! You never told me you met them!"

Tony choked on his saliva. "Ack—um—it—it never came up?"

"Dad," she said, looking ridiculously like Pepper with  _that_  face on.

He caught Pepper's worried look and he bowed his head. She's right. Their daughter was old enough to understand now. Old enough to know that contrary to her childhood and what she was led to believe, Dad didn't really  _do_  space.

He took a deep breath and looked at Morgan. And right there, he saw the decision made for him.

Her eyes were wide with hope, her cheeks glowing with expectation and pride, her mouth an excited grin.

He leaned back on the couch. "Alright. What do you want to know?"

"What was it like? The wormhole I mean! What was on the other side? How about the aliens! What language did they—"

"Slow down there, Quicksilver. Get Dad a glass of water, would you, please? I'm gonna need it."

Morgan quickly ran off to fetch the beverage and came back.

Tony drank the water slowly, delaying for as long as he could. When it was clear that he couldn't any longer, he began.

He didn't start with the wormhole, or the Chitauri, or Thanos.

He started with his friends.

He told her about the half-human Star-Lord who loved to dance his way into battle, of the warrior sisters Nebula and Gamora that struck fear into the hearts of their enemies.

"Gamora is green, by the way."

Morgan shrieked in delight. "They're really green?!"

Tony nodded, laughing. Man, his daughter fangirling over aliens was really the best thing to see.

He spoke of the empathetic, child-like and innocent (not green) Mantis as well as the equally child-like but deadly Drax.

"Oh, I almost forgot about Rocket the talking genius, inventor/raccoon and his partner-in-crime Groot who is a talking tree."

Morgan raised a dubious brow. She drew the line at ridiculous. "A talking tree?"

"Yes. But all he says is 'I am Groot' so I don't know if that counts," Tony said with a shrug. "But here's the thing. They travel all over the galaxy helping various races that need them the most. They're like the space version of the Avengers and they came to be called the Guardians of the Galaxy."

Tony sniffed and admitted, "You know, I was actually scared the first time I met them."

"I don't believe you."

"Yeah! Even Iron Man has something he's afraid of. And um, I mean, a talking tree and a talking raccoon? Yeah, I thought I was going crazy."

Morgan laughed. "But you weren't."

Tony shook his head. "No." His voice dropped lower and he said, "They saved me… and you."

Morgan's eyes almost bulged out of its sockets. "Me?"

"Yep," Tony nodded. "Mom was pregnant with you when a," he cleared his throat anxiously. "There was this um… he was a…" he curled his fist tightly and looked away.

He felt a hand on his and there was Morgan with an encouraging smile. "Don't be scared."

Tony felt the prickling sensation of tears forming and he forced a smile. He cupped Morgan's cheek before dropping his hand back to his lap.

This was just another Story Time, he told himself, where there was a bad guy, some heroes, and a happy ending.

"They called him a Titan. You know, a giant alien. And he wasn't green like Gamora or nice like Thor. He was purple and scary. And he was after these um Infinity Gems."

"You mean like Crystal Gems in Steven Universe?"

"Nothing like them. These Infinity Stones were gemstones that could control reality and everything you know: time, space, your soul and mind. Now, Thanos wanted to collect them so that he could make half the universe disappear."

"Then what happened?"

"He got all the stones and with a snap of his fingers, half the world… just gone. Including you and mom."

Morgan gasped.

"I… I was scared. Really scared. I thought it was all over. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy were gone. But… all of the remaining heroes in the universe banded together and we stopped Thanos. We took back the stones and put everything right."

"And here we are," said Pepper who joined them, catching Tony's eyes and sharing an intimate smile.

"Here  _I_  am," said Morgan.

Tony brought his fingers to her chin and wiggled it. "Yep. My two wonderful girls."

She laughed, swatting his hand away.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" said Tony, slapping a hand to his forehead. "I saved the Guardians' contact number so that next time I need their help, I can call them and they'll come running... or dancing." He gave his phone to Morgan and wiggled his eyebrows. "Wanna prank call some aliens?"

Morgan nodded. Tony gave her his phone and she ran away giggling.

"You're her hero, you know," said Pepper, sliding into the empty space beside Tony. "No matter what she says about aliens."

Tony took her hand and squeezed it, feeling the warmth in it, deriving strength from it.

"One day, she'll take me up there," he said, looking at the direction Morgan went, "and she'll show me there's nothing to be afraid of."


End file.
